Exclusive: Government offshoring customs jobs to prep UK firms for Brexit December 3, 2020 A government grant programme is paying for overseas workers to help British logistics firms prepare for Brexit. A loophole in the HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) £50m grant programme means taxpayer funds can be given to train overseas workers as long as their company has a UK base. The Customs Grants Scheme, which is being [...]
Asda joins ranks of supermarkets set to return business rates relief December 3, 2020 Asda has joined the growing number of UK supermarkets to hand back business rates relief given by the government to help it through the coronavirus crisis. This afternoon the grocer confirmed that it would repay £340m in emergency support – the fifth supermarket to make such a pledge. Since Tesco first announced it would give [...]
EU wants Brexit trade deal wrapped up with the UK by Friday December 3, 2020 Brussels officials are reportedly pushing for a UK-EU trade deal to be completed by tomorrow to avoid significant disruption when the Brexit transition period ends on 31 December. Talks between UK and EU negotiators are still deadlocked, with Brussels now warning that the European parliament will find it hard to ratify a deal before the [...]
Tesco CEO: Movement of product is the biggest Brexit issue December 3, 2020 The movement of products across borders is the biggest issue facing supermarkets because of Brexit, not food price inflation, the chief executive of Tesco has said. Speaking on Sky News today, CEO Ken Murphy said: “The biggest challenge we face really is the movement of product between borders, the movement of product between Great Britain [...]
Aldi becomes fourth supermarket to return business rate relief December 3, 2020 Aldi has become the forth supermarket to return the full value of the business rate relief it has received during the pandemic. Aldi will pay back more than £100m to the government and devolved administrations. The decision follows pledges from Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s to do the same, which will pay back £585m, £230m and [...]
Sainsbury’s to forgo business rates relief December 3, 2020 Sainsbury’s has decided to forgo the business rates relief on its stores granted by the government since March. Lockdown restrictions have remained in place for longer than originally expected and throughout the pandemic all Sainsbury’s stores have been deemed essential retail. Almost all have been open and trading strongly, with the exception of a small [...]
Morrisons follows Tesco in returning Covid-19 emergency support December 2, 2020 Morrisons has followed rival Tesco in deciding to pay back the business rates relief it received to help weather the coronavirus pandemic. The supermarket chain will hand back £274m to the government, £230m of which relates to its 2020/2021 financial year. In March the government waived all retail business rates for the financial year in [...]
Tesco to pay back £585m in emergency support with pandemic risks ‘behind us’ December 2, 2020 Tesco this morning said that it would pay back £585m of business rates relief it received to protect it from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The supermarket said that paying back the emergency funding was “the right thing to do”, adding that some of the risks from the pandemic were now behind it. In [...]
There’s a new type of leader in town: Agile, decisive, and interested in more than their own voice November 27, 2020 The turbulence of 2020 has provided a new lens through which to look at our leaders, prompting a rethink of what leadership should look like in the Covid era and beyond. Over the past nine months, leaders have had to navigate the coronavirus pandemic, sweeping technological changes, worldwide Black Lives Matter protests, and of course [...]
AO World swings to profit as working from home boosts revenue more than 50 per cent November 24, 2020 Online electricals retailer AO World swung to profit in the six months to September, as a surge in domestic appliance sales during the pandemic helped revenue rocket more than 50 per cent. The company, which sells washing machines, fridges, TVs and laptops, said sales in the six months to 30 September jumped 53.2 per cent [...]